As with every place I visit these days, I see people all over Poland on their phones - texting, surfing the web, checking their Facebook pages, just like I see in New York. But in addition to that, I see something that I found more and more rare in New York - people reading books.
Nearly as often as I see someone walking blindly on the sidewalk because she is texting, I see someone almost walk into someone because she has her nose in a book - a real book. On the trams, buses and metro, most people have something to read - a newspaper, a magazine, a textbook, a printed book or a Kindle.
Looking on Wikipedia, I see that Poland has a 99.7% literacy rate (higher than the US which is listed at 99.0%), so maybe that is the reason. I saw an article recently that discusses the cities with the highest number of book stores per capita and that Buenos Aires is the winner. Digging into the data source, I noticed that Poland wasn't even included in the survey, so unless I go out and start counting I don't have a real comparison. Whatever the reason, in times when it seems New York has fewer and fewer book stores, it is quite refreshing to see how many Warsaw has. While it can be expected that my neighborhood should have a lot (I am near a University) and places such as train stations and airports have more than one, I see them all over the city where it is not so easily explained.
Some specialize by topic such as law or education, some are part of a chain of multimedia stores (think Tower Records back when it still existed or what Barnes & Noble still is for now), some are small and quite a few are big. Many seem to be independent, but there are several other chains that I have noticed, which is more than come to mind when I try to remember what is left in New York, I can think of three individual stores offhand that are within a few blocks of my apartment, and I can think of at least ten more without having to go too far. Striking to me is that with so much new construction in the city (most with retail space), I am seeing bookstores in those buildings also which tells me they are a growth industry rather than a sinking one.
Granted, Amazon has not fully entered the Polish market yet. While there are Amazon warehouses in the country, there is not an Amazon.pl yet (many people order from their German site). Still, even when Amazon does launch it's Polish site, it might put a dent in the number of book stores, but it will likely feed the hunger for books themselves.
Meanwhile, I just try to keep out of the way of someone with a book she literally can't put down.
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Nearly as often as I see someone walking blindly on the sidewalk because she is texting, I see someone almost walk into someone because she has her nose in a book - a real book. On the trams, buses and metro, most people have something to read - a newspaper, a magazine, a textbook, a printed book or a Kindle.
Looking on Wikipedia, I see that Poland has a 99.7% literacy rate (higher than the US which is listed at 99.0%), so maybe that is the reason. I saw an article recently that discusses the cities with the highest number of book stores per capita and that Buenos Aires is the winner. Digging into the data source, I noticed that Poland wasn't even included in the survey, so unless I go out and start counting I don't have a real comparison. Whatever the reason, in times when it seems New York has fewer and fewer book stores, it is quite refreshing to see how many Warsaw has. While it can be expected that my neighborhood should have a lot (I am near a University) and places such as train stations and airports have more than one, I see them all over the city where it is not so easily explained.
Some specialize by topic such as law or education, some are part of a chain of multimedia stores (think Tower Records back when it still existed or what Barnes & Noble still is for now), some are small and quite a few are big. Many seem to be independent, but there are several other chains that I have noticed, which is more than come to mind when I try to remember what is left in New York, I can think of three individual stores offhand that are within a few blocks of my apartment, and I can think of at least ten more without having to go too far. Striking to me is that with so much new construction in the city (most with retail space), I am seeing bookstores in those buildings also which tells me they are a growth industry rather than a sinking one.
Granted, Amazon has not fully entered the Polish market yet. While there are Amazon warehouses in the country, there is not an Amazon.pl yet (many people order from their German site). Still, even when Amazon does launch it's Polish site, it might put a dent in the number of book stores, but it will likely feed the hunger for books themselves.
Meanwhile, I just try to keep out of the way of someone with a book she literally can't put down.
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Something else you can't help noticing here is how many used clothing stores there are. Not that there aren't plenty of high end places to shop also (as I have written about before) but they are all over the place.
As with many other countries, there is a growing issue of income inequality (the perceived lack of response to which I have heard is one reason for the surprise result of the recent presidential election), and many people are living on pretty low wages. And I have read that there is some resentment to the fiscal bailout of Greece (Poland is also a member of the EU) since average wages here are lower than in Greece,
While there are opportunities for conspicuous spending here, I have a sense that thrift is more common and there is a general aversion to debt. The used clothing stores are an emblem of that - it's not just hipsters and the poor who shop there, it seems to be a broad cross section of the population with no shame associated with patronizing them.
And, honestly, I like some of the shirts I have bought at the Humana store better than the ones I've bought in a mall.
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Then there are the kebab stands. While I like it, Polish cuisine is pretty basic, hearty and not terribly spicy, Since the fall of communism and joining the EU, I have heard that different types of food have become trendy and seem ubiquitous until the next thing arrives (I understand that the recent sushi mania was preceded by a wave of Vietnamese restaurants) so maybe kebabs are the current fad.
But kebab has two things going for it - it is cheap (in line with my perception of thrift as noted above) and is a very handy antidote to the high consumption rate of alcohol here. A third (more minor) factor could be that these places are open on the religious holidays on which much of Poland shuts down.
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Other places I tend to see everywhere:
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These aren't the only retail spaces that I am somewhat surprised to see in abundance - there is a large supply of, shall we say, "adult emporia". Not far from my first apartment, there was a stretch of the main road (named after John Paul II, no less) on which there were at least eight adult shops all on one side of one block (the other side of the street had a lot of kebab shops). This is not a marginal area like where they cluster in New York but in the middle of a residential neighborhood. My current neighborhood doesn't have as many, but the few that are there are brightly lit, with big glass windows showing their featured merchandise.
As with many other countries, there is a growing issue of income inequality (the perceived lack of response to which I have heard is one reason for the surprise result of the recent presidential election), and many people are living on pretty low wages. And I have read that there is some resentment to the fiscal bailout of Greece (Poland is also a member of the EU) since average wages here are lower than in Greece,
While there are opportunities for conspicuous spending here, I have a sense that thrift is more common and there is a general aversion to debt. The used clothing stores are an emblem of that - it's not just hipsters and the poor who shop there, it seems to be a broad cross section of the population with no shame associated with patronizing them.
And, honestly, I like some of the shirts I have bought at the Humana store better than the ones I've bought in a mall.
=====================
Then there are the kebab stands. While I like it, Polish cuisine is pretty basic, hearty and not terribly spicy, Since the fall of communism and joining the EU, I have heard that different types of food have become trendy and seem ubiquitous until the next thing arrives (I understand that the recent sushi mania was preceded by a wave of Vietnamese restaurants) so maybe kebabs are the current fad.
But kebab has two things going for it - it is cheap (in line with my perception of thrift as noted above) and is a very handy antidote to the high consumption rate of alcohol here. A third (more minor) factor could be that these places are open on the religious holidays on which much of Poland shuts down.
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Other places I tend to see everywhere:
- Dental clinics
- Flower shops
- Travel agencies
- Bakeries and sweet shops
- Electronic cigarette shops
- Military clothing and gear
This is in addition to the pharmacies, banks, mobile phone sellers and coffee shops that seem to be overrunning every city I have been to.
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These aren't the only retail spaces that I am somewhat surprised to see in abundance - there is a large supply of, shall we say, "adult emporia". Not far from my first apartment, there was a stretch of the main road (named after John Paul II, no less) on which there were at least eight adult shops all on one side of one block (the other side of the street had a lot of kebab shops). This is not a marginal area like where they cluster in New York but in the middle of a residential neighborhood. My current neighborhood doesn't have as many, but the few that are there are brightly lit, with big glass windows showing their featured merchandise.
While the existence of the shops isn't very surprising in itself, it is a little to me because of how conservative this country remains. Wikipedia indicates that 87.5% of the population identified as Roman Catholic (2011) and, according to an article from last year on sexual norms:
In today's Poland, both doctors and pharmacists can deny women contraceptives, abortion law is the tightest in Europe (with attempts to punish women who do it illegally) and sex education practically nonexistent.
So maybe the shops are just for tourists. Or maybe it relates to what everyone is reading about...
In today's Poland, both doctors and pharmacists can deny women contraceptives, abortion law is the tightest in Europe (with attempts to punish women who do it illegally) and sex education practically nonexistent.
So maybe the shops are just for tourists. Or maybe it relates to what everyone is reading about...
